S Chand buys Chhaya Prakashani

Mumbai: Education-focused content provider S Chand group has acquired a majority stake in Kolkata-based publishing house Chhaya Prakashani, even as it plans to hit the capital markets with an IPO soon.
The Everstone Capital-backed publisher of educational books has over the past few years bought stakes and acquired companies like New Saraswati House, Vikas Publishing House and Madhuban Books, besides investing in online education startups.
Analysts tracking the education segment estimate S Chand’s current turnover at Rs 540 crore, while Chhaya’s is at Rs 130 crore, giving them a combined revenue of $100 million — the first for any education content company in India.
Himanshu Gupta, MD of S Chand group, said that Chhaya’s strength in east India was one of the reasons for picking up a stake in the company. “This partnership with Chhaya marks our foray into the regional board content market. We look forward to working with Sumit Biswas and Chhaya to create a stronger footprint in the eastern region,” said Dinesh Jhunjhnuwala, vice-chairman of the Delhi-based 75-year-old S Chand group.
Biswas, CEO, Chhaya, said, “The support from S Chand will allow us to enhance our content and digital capabilities and work towards expanding our presence using their pan-India distribution network.”
S Chand has been investing in the digital education ventures like Smartivity Labs, Testbook, an online test preparation startup for competitive exams, and Edutor.
The Indian education market is over $90 billion in size, of which the K-12 market is $50 billion. Of this, the K-12 print content market is approximately $3.36 billion.